‘We’re not all terrible’: the landlords who keep rents low

theguardian.com:

When landlords hit the headlines it tends to be for the worst of reasons – what we don’t tend to hear are the stories of tenants who live in properties in good condition, where the owner quickly replaces the fridge when it breaks or organises for an electrician to fix the flickering light fitting.

There are about 1.5 million residential landlords in England, according to the 2018 English Private Landlord Survey, and in 2020-21, the private rented sector accounted for 4.4 million, or 19%, of households in England.

Earlier this month, a committee of MPs reported that more than one in eight of these homes posed a risk to safety, and that it was “too difficult for renters to realise their legal right to a safe and secure home”.

This week there has also been news of a major charity failing to look after the homes of some of its tenants.

But alongside the problem properties, and the landlords who are doing everything they should be a doing, there are some owners who are going the extra mile for their tenants.

“We’re not all terrible landlords,” says Heather Scott, 41, a copywriter, who started renting out her dad’s property in Whitstable when he went into care, charging the tenants less than the market rent. “We both liked to put our morals where our mouth is and the rents here are astronomical,” she says.

They decided to rent out the property to a friend and her three children who were “living in a tiny house” nearby for which they paid £760 a month. For the same money the family now live in a three-bedroom detached house with a large garden and parking close to the children’s school and a 10-minute walk to the beach.

“We worked out that level of rent would cover my dad’s care home bill and she would have a lovely place to live,”